Wii's Best Shooters (by Carl B.)

November 15, 2010, by Carl B. - Despite not being the most visually spectacular console, the Wii has gotten its fair share of great shooters over its four year lifespan. It took a while for developers to nail down pointer controls, but once they did, some of the best-controlling shooters of all time were produced. Out of every shooter on Wii of the first-person variety, which are the best?



5. The Conduit

The Conduit set the bar for shooters on Wii as far as control customization goes. Before the game's release developers really weren't able to master pointer controls, and it resulted in horribly controlling games like Red Steel and Farcry: Vengeance. The Conduit also featured excellent visuals, despite having a rather bland art style, and a fully-featured online multiplayer component. Glitches in the multiplayer that allowed players to use rapid-fire bazookas ultimately ruined the online experience, but The Conduit proved to be a great showing of things to come.

4. Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops has, by far, the most robust online multiplayer mode available on Wii. The Wii version of the popular war shooter has every mode, perk, and feature available on the HD versions, sans for the Nazi Zombie mode that only has a single map. Black Ops isn't a visual masterpiece on Wii, but a consistent frame rate and great controls help it to be one of the best shooters on the console.

3. Goldeneye 007

Eurocom's re-imagining of Goldeneye 007 isn't revolutionary like the N64 original was, but the title holds its own well enough to be the third-best shooter currently available on Wii. Out of the Wii's contemporary shooters, Goldeneye 007 sports the most fun and engaging single player campaign. It doesn't follow the original game's story and levels exactly to the dot; instead, the movie's original writer wrote an updated story for the game in order to fit the modern version of Bond. Online and splitscreen multiplayer is also included in the title and feels more unique than a lot of online shooters this generation.

2. Red Steel 2

The first Red Steel was an absolutely terrible game - it had below average visuals, a story that lost its steam halfway through, and dismal controls. With Red Steel 2, Ubisoft created a completely different experience compared to the first game, thanks to a brand new development team. Red Steel 2 features beautiful cel-shaded visuals running at a perfect 60 frames per second. Utilizing Wii Motion Plus, Red Steel 2 also allows players to pull out a katana and slice through enemies that way at any time they want with near 1:1 control. Pointer controls for aiming the character's gun are also near flawless, and switching from gun to sword or vice-versa feels seamless and natural.

1. Metroid Prime Trilogy

The Metroid Prime series can be broken down into several different genres, but whether it's labeled as a first person adventure or first person shooter it doesn't matter; Metroid Prime 1, 2, and 3 all contain elements found in shooters. All three games are also amazing, made even better with excellent pointer controls and a seamless way to select which one of the three games to play. Icing on the cake: an awesome metal casing and art booklet, if you can still find the game in stores, that is.